


The Lover

by Lady_Psychedelic



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 03:58:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15878061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Psychedelic/pseuds/Lady_Psychedelic
Summary: Felicity can carry the title of "wife" of Oliver Queen, but it was Barry who possessed her heart





	The Lover

The seriousness in his gaze persists for a few seconds in his expression before being completely erased, being replaced by sadness, anguish and desolation, bathing the air of the kitchen with melancholy and regret. In front of her, sitting on the kitchen stool and with a cup of hot tea in her hands, Laurel tries to stay without saying anything about the situation there, wanting to deliver the tranquility that Felicity had weeks ago lost because of stress at work in Palmer Tech and her husband, who had neglected her without consideration.

" I think Oliver is being unfaithful ... " Felicity says, trying not to betray her voice. Not wanting to spill a miserable tear and look more pathetic than you already thought.

The other woman narrowed her eyes slightly with a movement of her makeup lips, did not need many explanations to her, after all, Laurel had suffered firsthand what was an infidelity. The betrayal and pain of feeling stabbed in the back of the beloved, the bitter taste of being cheated and the anger of not knowing enough for whom your heart had decided to love. Even though that wound had healed a few years ago, that did not mean I did not know how to remember the pain of those days. Sometimes, when night and darkness devoured her in the solitude of her room, it was impossible for her heart not to squeeze with the memory of how naive she had been. Sometimes, the wound hurt more than in others.

Now, Laurel was married to Tommy, so it was not worth thinking about the past. It was not worth it

"Are you sure"she asks equally, putting his teacup aside and taking Felicity's hand in her. "Oliver was an idiot before you knew him, but I change. It is not the same man with whom I committed myself, he loves you."

Felicity bites her lips in a nervous gesture without realizing it and accepts the hand of her friend in search of vague comfort, interlacing her fingers and returning the squeeze in gratitude, because she would lie if she said that she was not about to suffer a collapse in the heart and his being by the simple idea that Oliver, the man he had married three years before, was seeing someone else.

_What had he done wrong?_

" Every weekend he leaves home early, says he's going to train with Diggle and fix the affairs of his club with Thea ... "Felicity says before releasing a sob-sighing sigh ."But it's not the first time When calling for lunch together, neither Dig nor Thea know where he is. Oliver lies about his routines and disappears for five hours, nobody knows where he is going and nobody asks. I'm afraid to know the answer even though I need it."

Laurel agrees with that typical seriousness in the lawyer, gets up from her stool forgetting her cup of tea, to surround the table and leave her with her gaze burning in a determination that Felicity also wanted to possess. Because although he was strong in front of others in any situation that arose, the truth was that inside he was insecure, weak and fragile. She could not be like the sisters Lance, she could not lift her chin and pretend that nothing could hurt her or knock her down.  _I wish I could._

-"You have to find out on your own "she says, Felicity does not know what to answer. "If Thea or Diggle know something they will not tell us, they will keep the secret. If Tommy would know and I opened it and Sara is still busy with his move with Leonard, so follow Oliver is the only thing we have left Laurel "

Laurel arms crossed. "You know their schedules, I will make a space in my agenda and we will follow his movements. Mick and Kara owe me a favor, I'll borrow your car; Oliver would notice that we follow him if we go in yours or mine."

Felicity doubts the plan, but she can not continue to suffer in silence, she needs to know if Oliver was really being unfaithful. If he had a lover.

Even if it meant breaking her heart.

/ \\\\\

Again Felicity wakes up in an empty bed, with the cold sheets on her side and the feeling of loneliness sinking into her chest in such a way that it hurts as if it were tangible. A hard and gigantic mass that crushes it until breaking any vestige of light in its being, abandoning it in the blackness of nothingness itself. A lone tear falls from her eye and traces an invisible wet path down her cheek until it is lost under her chin. Before realizing it, she delicately caresses the empty space that Oliver leaves day after day there without knowing why, without receiving an answer that could calm her heart that is broken by not being able to see her husband at her side, who she seemed to find in someone more what he could not find in her. Their fingers intertwine with the thin fabric until they let go and let themselves be in the empty space left by Oliver's absence, her heart quickens at such thought but denies herself in such a way that it frightens her; it was as if she had somehow resigned herself to not having her husband there or as if she had grown accustomed to him not being there.

She felt silly and hurt When had her married life changed so much? She could still remember perfectly well her first year with Oliver Queen, his walks in the evening in the city, his surprises after a hard day's work or the future plans that had been given on his honeymoon in America Latina Where did each illusion go, the love given in each second together? It was true that in the past few months she had been busy with Ray, with a lot of work, that she had canceled important plans with her husband and that sometimes she forgot that Oliver liked to share moments on the phone with nonsense talks or Internet nonsense. part of her. But that did not mean that Oliver had reason to go looking for a lover as if he were the poor victim of the novel, there were no real reasons why she should do something so cruel to him. Felicity had wanted to remedy his mistake, comfort the man for allowing the work at Palmer Tech to get in the way, but every chance of approaching it had been in vain. Making the blonde remember the years where they had not even been dating and she was looking for ways to draw attention to her conquests.

Now she could barely get that, making him believe for a few moments as if she were the other, the one she had to hide in the darkness, and not the lover Oliver hid there.

Her mobile resting on her night table -  _that little piece of furniture they had bought after returning from a fantastic honeymoon_  - vibrates to the tune of a Taylor Swift song, customized only for Laurel with the intention that Oliver would not suspect anything of the kind. that they planned against him. Of the exits that both did and of the hours that they invested to watch it, trying to obtain tracks that took them to the whereabouts of their lover. Felicity sighs without emotion and reaches for her cell phone, answering the call in the process.

"What's going on" she asks without any heart, after a whole month of chasing Oliver from one place to another in Starling City, neither of them had been able to obtain anything. No clues, ideas or data. Nothing.

For a few brief moments, she even believed that everything had been his imagination and that such a lover existed only in but it was not like that, there was someone else in Oliver's life. Someone capable of making him smile like she could not do it anymore, someone who sent him messages at night, someone who seemed to understand him as Felicity could not do it, someone who stole his time and who surely received the caresses that should be his alone. That someone out of nowhere, of the deepest misery, and that had taken over Oliver leaving her to suffer from loneliness, pain and lack of love.

_What had she done wrong?_

"I have something "Laurel answers from the other side, with a serious and professional tone of voice. As a good lawyer and friend would do

 

"Tommy managed to find out something about Thea last night during their meeting in Verdant, it seems that Oliver canceled an important appointment with Carter Hal. It is very likely that Oliver goes out to meet his lover between 2:30 and 3:15 pm -visit, as if he were reading it from a paper."

Felicity's heart is disturbed inside her chest with the violence of a hurricane, because Oliver had not said anything at all about the cancellation of the meeting with Carter Hal and his wife Kendra that morning, on the contrary, he himself He had remembered that he would not wait for lunch. Telling him that way he could go with his companions to the dining rooms of Palmer Tech.

"Are you sure" she asks, naive of her. With one hand on her chest and sad eyes fixed somewhere in the room.

On the other side of the line, Laurel takes ten seconds to answer her question. The blonde believes in the possibility of her friend weighing the idea of lying to protect her, after all, the truth and the lie hurt in the same way right now. Any answer the lawyer could give her would continue to break Felicity`s heart, whether for good or for bad.

Laurel sighs exhausted on her cell phone.

"Totally safe," she says in a hard voice, not wanting to be weak when Felicity needed her most. "What will we do?" She asks, leaving the important decision to her.

" I do not want to stay another sleepless night, thinking of Oliver with someone else. Give me lies, relapse back into the past "Replies Felicity, perhaps speaking more to herself than to Laurel who was waiting patiently from the other side. "We will go to see the secret that Oliver jealously guards" adds with a determination born in her chest .

You can almost swear she feels Laurel's smile caressing his cheek through her cell phone.

Felicity hesitantly doubts her decision.

/ \\\\\

Her hand trembles on the hard fabric of her jeans, her neat nails scratch the surface of her pants in an unconscious gesture of nerves that could never be undone. Her heart seemed to be right now in a battle against her anxiety, both of them running vertiginously with her blood, who did not lose heart if it boiled in her veins with rage and anger or freeze because of the sadness and grief that was choking her, creating a a lump in her throat that threatened to hang her. She can feels her hands sweating cold and the nervous tick in her leg almost piercing the floor of the borrowed vehicle of Rene. The air around her seemed to get denser with every minute that went on in there, as if somehow he was able to fog the glass and make it explode from the pressure. Maybe a part of her would not want to be there, that weak and naive little voice that fears to stop badly from all this. But the other part, the one that helped her to be that independent and strong woman, shouted to live battle voices to go where Oliver to hunt her. Felicity preferred to listen to the second voice.

At her side driving with sure coldness and determination, Laurel transports her from one end to the other chasing Oliver and his chores around Starling City. Nothing strange to her saying, only points without connection to each other that confuse her. It was as if her husband was taking a walk through the city, stopping at the premises to see some nonsense and return to his car without buying anything; with the only difference of that comic of Captain America that bought in a house FrikiGamer's. But out of that insignificant detail to his saying, it seemed to be nothing more than watching Oliver waste time. Felicity believes that they were not going to get anywhere, the strange behavior of her partner could be just -  _exactly_ \- Nothing, or even the possibility that he might not see his lover that day. I could almost feel the taste of disappointment rising in her, though I would not know how lucky I was not to have caught Oliver in the act. After all, she was still afraid of the truth behind her husband's behavior.  _I was afraid to take a broken heart._

To her surprise, and after having been following the eldest of the Queen for most of the morning, he stops at an apartment complex in good condition on the outskirts of the city in a humble area. Of almost deserted streets and no traffic, there was no movement of passersby at all. Both stop far from Oliver's vehicle and camouflage themselves with the other parked cars, even the two reach to lean against the seats so as not to be easily seen.

Oliver gets out of his Camaro and approaches the entrance with a bag in his hand, they see him ring the entrance bell and wait there swinging from foot to foot in a gesture of impatience that the woman had never noticed.

The door to the apartment complex slowly opens to her eyes and Felicity's heart, like Laurel's, doubles her heartbeat because of the uncertainty and anxiety of the truth. Little by little the figure behind the glass-paneled door of the building rebels before it.

_It could not be._

"Barry"Laurel asks, straightening up in her seat and tilting her head sideways, as if confused. "What's Barry doing in Starling City?"

Felicity blinked equally confused, taking her initial position in the passenger seat. By being seen completely inside the building, Barry does not hesitate to embrace Oliver with enthusiasm before letting him pass and closing the door.

"He's visiting Barry "Felicity whispers, falling back on her memories.

Now that she remembered with more clarity and patience, a long time ago he had had a telephone conversation with the brunette, where he told her without encouragement how the things between Iris and him seemed to go wrong. That his marriage seemed to come to nothing and that the idea that the brunette was still in love with Eddie was still in force in Barry's thoughts. For those days, Felicity had not paid the slightest attention to her friend's conversations and listened without really listening, too busy with the jobs that Ray had accumulated in his office after the treaties with Industrias Wayne. Barry seemed to have been having a hard time and she did not even know, it did not seem strange to him that the boy was looking for refuge in Oliver; after all, it would not be the first time. After Dig and Cisco, Oliver and Barry were best friends.

"He does not cheat me," Felicity sighs as if she were taking a weight off. "She only comes to see Barry, I think it has to do with what happens with Iris," she says, almost as if he was scolding himself for not having remembered him before.

"And why had he not told you anything?" asks Laurel, perhaps being upset by the time lost and in the end it was all a booger of the pair of useless she had for friends.

"You know what Barry is like, he does not want to bother anyone with his problems like Oliver. Also, I was not a good friend with him in recent years, neglect our friendship to work at Palmer Tech."

"Barry has problems with Iris?"asked the lawyer  hitting the target at the same time she lit the vehicle, there was nothing more to do there.

"Yes, and it's better not to get in the way "accepts Felicity, closing her eyes and leaning on the seat. "Oliver will know what to do with Barry."

A small smile is born in her face without being able to avoid it.

Her husband did not have a lover.

/ \\\\\

The open window of the room showed through it the last nuances of the afternoon, making the orange solar rays bathe the small room before the darkness of the night took over completely. The birds outside sing the last tunes before taking refuge waiting for a new day, relaxing with their soft song the dreamy atmosphere that they enjoyed there; of those few minutes that you could call yours alone: To have yourself, to feel, to adore, to belong. Enjoy what could not be seen by anyone else, a secret that filled them as nothing could. Well, they may appear to be a thing on the outside; family men dedicated to their work, good neighbors and friends. But inside there was that flame of forbidden love,

Anyone who could see them like that, in the heat of impropriety and secrecy, would say they were horrible beings for having the nerve to deceive Iris and Felicity, for being so brazen to be unfaithful to their wives who waited for them where they were supposed to that was his home. Perhaps whoever saw them would think that way, because they did not know them, because they did not know that that feeling of affection for the other carried in their hearts more time than they wanted to recognize. That he had been there long before the eldest was married, but that he never allowed himself to be surrendered to him as a coward, believing in vain that by marrying Felicity it would be extinguished until it disappeared completely. That after Barry decided to go ahead with Iris, his love for Oliver would be in the lowest oblivion, now both belonged to other people, how naive they were! To have believed that a true love could be hidden under the facade of a marriage - _in_  - happy There was no doubt that they wanted their wives, but it was not the same. The love could not even be compared, could not compare the love that the other reflected in the eyes when they were finally together, even if it was a few hours a week. They both knew that this relationship could not be kept between the walls of a small rental room, either in the quiet Central City or the night Starling City.

There was the big question of their problem, they knew that theirs could not be overnight, however much they wanted it, that they wanted it. That could hurt more than one person, they had no right to think only of them, even if their marriages had been going downhill for some time; as much as Iris would no longer be interested in Barry or Felicity preferring her work to Oliver. To finish with them to form a life together, the one they did not know how to have in the past, would not be easy -  _since when was something?_ -. Because although things had not turned out as they had planned in their beginning, that did not prevent them from still being fond of them for those women who tried to love at the time. Maybe they did not want to be by his side anymore, but that did not mean they did not want to protect them.  _Love was complicated_  , of that there was no doubt. Both wanted to take care of them, to make sure that nothing hurt them, but they could not continue pretending that everything was fine when it was not like that. And in order to be together as they wished, a broken heart was necessary.  _Will the wounds be healed one day?_

The whistle of the microwave in the small kitchen sounds like annoying music in the apartment, making Barry wake up from his dream in a lazy way. The yawn is impossible to hide right now, it was always a man to sleep like a fat domestic cat, so it is not strange to feel that desire to snuggle against the other candid body and be left in the arms of Morpheus once more. He could still feel in his being the caresses received from a passionate encounter, the kisses and the scars of his love in him; each one of them as if they had been burned with fire in their pale skin. He still did not want to get rid of them even though he knew that it was necessary to a certain extent, even though he had not been intimate with his wife for months. During those long five months, Oliver was the only one who saw him truly naked. Perhaps for that cruel reason it was that it left to the major to mark to him as it did it, filling his chest, belly and thighs with pacifiers, scratches and bites. And despite knowing that the blonde did not have intimacy with Felicity as it was due for some time, it was not the same.

" Wake up " Oliver whispers on his neck, his lips dancing on his skin with a soft caress - We must leave and the food cools - he says little convinced, the truth is that he did not want to get away from that bed.

Barry moans half annoyed, half asleep in his arms. It was always the same, certainly. Both fought against their internal demons until they felt ready to return to the outside world, to their personal lie and waiting to count the seconds to see each other again. To belong as they always should have been. What would have happened if Oliver had not been a coward years ago and accepted his feelings for Barry? Maybe they were married now, maybe living together and not resorting to lies to be happy.

"Can you make me hot chocolate? I'm still sleepy, "Barry complains as a small child, closing his eyes and letting himself sink into the pillow that smelled of them and sex.

Oliver's heart warms at such an image, at the sweet voice of his boy and the innocence he can show despite what happened. He smiles without realizing it, because without proposing, without any effort, Barry made him happy.  _I_  wish they  _did not have to separate_  , I wish I could keep him there longer, I wish I could let him sleep by his side a little more. I wish I could invite him to dinner, I wish I had the chance to take his hand and invite him to walk with him to the end of the world.

" All right, honey, "he admits, knowing how weak Barry was returning him.

Taking his clothes scattered around the room, he dresses with sensual parsimony knowing that the brat watched him and goes slowly to the kitchen but not before taking his cell phone. He has two missed calls, one from his sister -  _maybe to tell him about the cancellation with Carter and Kendra_  - and the other from Felicity, his heart can not help but hurt at the image of his wife and that call he did not accept for being busy making Barry his. The feeling of guilt weighs on him like tons, he should do something soon or everything could get out of hand  _Could he do more harm?_

Oliver is still doing his own thing to make a hot chocolate in the little kitchen, trying to ignore the pain for Felicity and the love for Barry. He did not want to hurt any of them, but sooner or later he had to put an end to his situation, and his wife was not among his options, however cruel it might sound. Whether he wanted it or not, his heart belonged to Barry.

Soon, it is said internally with some hope that it does not lose day by day, with every second that passes and passes tormentingly. I could soon have the-not-so-bum-by-your-side as he always should have been, once he was brave and talked to Felicity about the divorce. When both were free of chains that kept them in an unwanted family, they could fulfill together those dreams that they left unfinished.

When all this ended for both of them, Oliver would promise to take his lover's hand so he would not let go again. Never.


End file.
